Miroslav Kubík (1925) - Biography

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“People should never be imprisoned for their political conviction anymore!”

Miroslav Kubík was born in 1925 in Roudnice nad Labem. Both his parents came from Vienna, he had two elder brothers, Jaromír and Theodor. The whole family loved music, and there was often singing and playing going on in the house. After the fifth grade of elementary school he entered the grammar school in Roudnice. When he was in the sixth grade, together with other students he was arrested by the Gestapo from Kladno on June 20, 1942 and taken to the Little Fortress in Terezín, where he was violently interrogated on the very same day. After three months in the Little Fortress, where he was working in various commandos, including the much-feared "Reichsbahn," he was transported to the core camp of Auschwitz on September 28, 1942, where he subsequently stayed in blocks Nr. 9, 28, and 4a and did mainly cleaning work. In August 1944 he was transported to the Dachau concentration camp, where the living conditions of the prisoners were somewhat better. He spent a year and nine months there. All that time he stayed in the Czech block Nr. 20 and was a member of several work commandos. On April 29, 1945 the whole camp was liberated by the American army.

After the war Miroslav Kubík completed his grammar school studies and was admitted to the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague. In February 1948 he took part in the university students´march to the Prague Castle. Somebody recognized him and turned him in, which resulted in authorities causing problems for him. In 1951 he finished his studies and married Věra Menčlová. They have three children: Věra, Ivana and Miroslav. Up to 1983 he was working as a chemist.